UK and Ireland agree to do ‘everything possible’ to restore power sharing in Northern Ireland

The UK and Ireland have agreed to do “everything possible” to restore power-sharing in Northern Ireland, following a meeting of the British-Irish intergovernmental conference in London.

The Irish foreign affairs minister Simon Coveney and the UK’s Northern Ireland secretary Chris Heaton-Harris met in London today – alongside the Irish justice minister Helen McEntee and the UK’s Northern Ireland minister Steve Baker.

The UK and Irish governments reaffirmed their commitment to doing everything possible to facilitate the reestablishment of the executive by 28 October and the full functioning of all of the political institutions established by the Belfast/Good Friday Agreement including the North South Ministerial Council.

They agreed on the importance of respecting the agreement in totality.

The conference discussed the approach to the legacy of Northern Ireland’s past and the value of further engagement on this crucial issue, in particular the Irish government’s concerns with the UK government’s proposed legislation and how those concerns might be addressed.

In terms of setting up a central bank, we would start that process as soon as Scotland voted for independence. That central bank would be the provider of advice to the Scottish government on these matters, it would be the lender of last resort for our financial services industry, it would require reserves that could cover these limited functions in that first period.

We have said, and this is my party’s position, that we would move from using the pound, we would continue to use the pound after independence ... and we would move to a Scottish pound when the economic conditions were right.